Book Review: The Scarlet Plague

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London
Release Date: 1912
Publisher: London Magazine / Macmillian
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 68
Buy the Book: Amazon
Download the Book: Project Gutenberg
Book Rating: 3.5/5








While technically a short story, The Scarlet Plague is still, nevertheless, a good read. A fairly straightforward story by Jack London, James Smith, one of the few survivors of a global epidemic half a century prior, sits down with his grandchildren and narrates the story as it happened to him. As he does this, he attempts to impart the wisdom of a bygone world to them.


While Smith narrates the story much like a news story, or radio broadcast (Think Welle's broadcast of War of the Worlds ) it is still a compelling story as you watch the collapse of modern civilization over the course of a few days. Written in 1912, it reads like much of the science fiction of the late 19th early 20th century in that it is, to modern readers, both futuristic and archaic in its description of civilization. It feels like the space age 1950s that brought us the Jetsons. Smith recalls the outbreak and 99.99% fatality rate of The Scarlet Plague and narrates his party's flight from the city towards the mountains. It also includes the renewal of tribal life as mankind is reduced, insofar as Smith knows, to around 200 people.

The story does recall The Last Man by Mary Shelley, but the author is less introspective, and the language is less flowery and dense. (It would kind of have to be given its page count ;) ). The thing I appreciate in this story, beyond the tale of survival, is the interaction between Smith and his grandchildren and how someone, who was a renowned scientist, deals with a world reduced to tribal rules and organization and is slowly becoming more superstitious and disbelieving of scientific discovery we take for granted today (germs being one of them for example).

A good read, and a shorter read, it is recommended. Unless your a sucker for the hard copy of books, I recommend downloading this from Gutenberg, or another service. I found mine on Kobo for my e-reader for free. I imagine it is available electronically for the Kindle, etc..